Method and apparatus for interactive toy vehicles

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are methods of operating a toy. One disclosed method includes receiving a trigger signal for an event from another toy; determining whether a previous trigger signal has been received; and providing a feedback to the trigger event based on the determination of receipt of the previous trigger signal. Apparatuses are also disclosed for performing the method.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to provisional application No. 61/117,521, filed Nov. 24, 2008.

BACKGROUND

I. Field

This disclosure relates generally to toys and, more particularly, to interactive toy vehicles.

II. Background

Many toys allow the interaction with a user and the toy. However, very few systems allow the interaction between toys as controlled by users and provide feedback to the interaction in a real-time and fun manner.

Consequently, it would be desirable to address the deficiencies noted above.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary of one or more aspects in order to provide a basic understanding of such aspects. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated aspects, and is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of all aspects nor delineate the scope of any or all aspects. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

Certain aspects provide methods and apparatus for method of operating a toy, including receiving a trigger signal for an event from another toy; determining whether a previous trigger signal has been received; and providing a feedback to the trigger event based on the determination of receipt of the previous trigger signal. various ways in which the principles of various aspects may be employed and the described aspects are intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a remote control system for an interactive toy vehicle;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a vehicle control system for the interactive toy vehicle of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a process of interaction between the remote control and vehicle control systems of FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of the vehicle control system implementing a vehicle damage system;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a play action for the interactive toy vehicle;

FIG. 6 is a second diagram illustrating another play action for the interactive toy vehicle;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating the functionality of a toy apparatus in accordance with one aspect of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various aspects of the disclosure are described below. It should be apparent that the teachings herein may be embodied in a wide variety of forms and that any specific structure, function, or both being disclosed herein is merely representative. Based on the teachings herein one skilled in the art should appreciate that an aspect disclosed herein may be implemented independently of any other aspects and that two or more of these aspects may be combined in various ways. For example, an apparatus may be implemented or a method may be practiced using any number of the aspects set forth herein. In addition, such an apparatus may be implemented or such a method may be practiced using other structure, functionality, or structure and functionality in addition to or other than one or more of the aspects set forth herein. Furthermore, an aspect may comprise at least one element of a claim.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any aspect described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects.

FIG. 1 illustrates a remote control system 100 that includes a radio frequency (RF) transmitter 102 and a transmitter controller IC 104. The transmitter controller IC 104 receives input from a plurality of buttons, including a forward button 122, a backward button 124, a right button 126, a left button 128; and a shoot button 130. The transmitter controller IC 104 transforms each keys press signal into an RF signal to be transmitted by the RF transmitter 102 to a RF receiver 202 in a vehicle control system 200, as illustrated in FIG. 2, below. Specifically, each button will cause the transmitter controller IC 104 to send a certain encoded signal using the RF transmitter 102. Each encoded signal causes the vehicle to perform a certain function once it has been received.

The forward button 122 moves the vehicle forward when the user presses the forward button 122 on the remote controller 100. The backward button 124 moves the vehicle backward when the user presses the backward key on the remote controller 100. The right button 126 moves the vehicle right when the user presses the right button 126 on the remote controller 100. The left button 128 moves the vehicle left when the left button 128 is pressed on the remote controller 100. The shoot button 130 will, in one aspect of the disclosure, cause the vehicle to make a noise and a gun portion of the vehicle will light up to simulate gun fire when the user presses the shoot button 130 on the remote controller 100.

FIG. 2 illustrates the vehicle control system 200 that includes the RF receiver 202 coupled to an RF receiver IC 204. The RF receiver IC 204 is coupled to a main IC 220, which in turn is coupled to an IR transmitter 232, an IR receiver 234, an light-emitting diode (LED) device 236, a speaker 238, a motor 1 240, and a motor 2 242.

The RF receiver 202 receives the received RF signals from the RF transmitter 102 and then sends it to the RF receiver IC 204 to decode the received RF signals to keys press signals generated by the user using the forward button 122, the backward button 124, the right button 126, the left button 128; and the shoot button 130. The main IC 220, based on the decoded key press and the received IR signals, transfers the proper control signals to the motor 1 240, the motor 2 260, the speaker 238, and the IR transmitter 232. Buttons are switches that may also be implemented as toggles, joysticks, and the like.

The IR receiver 234 receives the IR signal from another vehicle's transmitted. IR signal. Conversely, the IR transmitter 232 transmit an IR signal that simulates shooting another vehicle. The LED controller 236 controls the LEDs that illustrates the number of “HITS”, which relates to the amount of damage received by the vehicle. The speaker 238 produces sound effects generated by the main IC 220. The motor 1 240 for the vehicle control system 200, where the vehicle is a car, controls the steering. The motor 2 242 move the vehicle forward or backward. In another aspect, where the vehicle is a boat, the motor 1 240 controls a rudder, and the motor 2 242 controls a propeller.

FIG. 3 illustrates a vehicle operation process 300 that includes an initialization step 302 that starts up the vehicle control system 200. In step 304, the vehicle control system 200 will enter a system ready state before entering into a sleep mode in 306. In the sleep mode, the vehicle control system 200 will determine whether a radio signal has been sensed. If a radio signal has been sensed in step 310, then the vehicle control system 200 will wake up in step 312 and receive the radio signal. The vehicle control system 200 will then verify the radio signal in step 314. If the radio signal has not been verified in step 314, then the vehicle control system 200 will stop all operations in step 380 and then operation will return to sleep mode in step 306, which is to wait for a detected radio signal.

If the radio signal has been verified in step 314, then the radio signal will be decoded as either a forward command in step 320, a backward command in step 330, a right turn command in step 350, a left turn command in step 340; and a shoot (or “fire”) command in step 360. Each of these commands would correspond to a respective button press by the user using the forward button 122, the backward button 124, the right button 126, the left button 128; and the shoot button 130.

In one aspect, the vehicle control system 200 is used in a first toy vehicle that may be remote controlled by a first user to interact with a second toy vehicle that contains a second vehicle control system remote controlled by a second user. In this aspect, where the first and second toy vehicles are cars, the first and second users each drive their respective cars and try to out-maneuver each other and “shoot” each other with the infrared “guns” mounted on their vehicle. The following discussion will proceed with this as the example, and also refer to a sequence of illustrations 500 and 600 in FIGS. 5 and 6, respectively.

In one aspect, where the vehicle control system 200 of the first vehicle has detected an IR signal from the second vehicle using the IR receiver 202, which signals that the first vehicle has been “hit” or “shot” by the second vehicle, operation will continue with step 370, which is further detailed in FIG. 4. In step 402, a counter tracking the total of numbers the vehicle has been it is determined. If the vehicle has never been hit before, then operation will continue to step 410, where the 1^(st) Hit has been registered. Then, in step 412, one of the LEDs turns ON to illustrate that the vehicle has been hit, and, in step 414, the vehicle is made to shake and moves forward and backward quickly to simulate the effects of being hit while sound effects play from the speaker 238. The LEDs could also illustrate the amount of health left in the first vehicle, instead of the amount of damage inflicted by the second vehicle. This is illustrated as a first hit panel 502 in FIG. 5, as well as a first hit panel 602 in FIG. 6. Other actions could occur, but the 1^(st) Hit level is not supposed to be as damaging as the next two levels. Once step 414 has been completed, operation returns to step 380 of FIG. 3, where the vehicle control system 200 will await the receipt of a new signal.

If the 1^(st) Hit had been reached previously (i.e., this is the second hit the vehicle has sustained), as determined by step 402, then operation continues with step 420, where the 2^(nd) Hit is registered. At this 2^(nd) Hit level. LED controller 236 turns on two of the damage LEDs. Again, the LEDs could represent the amount of health left, in which case another LED may be extinguished to illustrate a loss of health. In step 424, the vehicle will also appear to be out of control as the user's commands are ignored and, instead, the user's movements may be replaced by random movement programmed into the main IC 220. In another aspect, the sequence of seemingly random movement may be preprogrammed into the main IC 220. This is illustrated as a second hit panel 504 in FIG. 5, as well as a second hit panel 604 in FIG. 6. Once this step has been completed, operation would return to step 380 of FIG. 3, where the vehicle control system 200 will await the receipt of a new signal.

If the 2^(nd) Hit had been reached previously (i.e., this is the third hit the vehicle has sustained), as determined by step 402, then operation continues with step 430, where the 3^(rd) Hit is registered. In this aspect, LED controller 236 turns on three of the damage LEDs. In step 434, the first vehicle will also appear to be out of control as the user's commands are ignored, similar to step 424. Then, the first vehicle will be completely shut down so that no further commands are accepted from the first user. In addition, the LEDs could be completely turned off, indicating that the vehicle has no health left. This is illustrated as a third hit panel 506 in FIG. 5. In another aspect, the first vehicle will simulate blowing up and will flip over, as simulated as a third hit panel 606 in FIG. 6. The first vehicle can then be reset once the mechanism that is used to flip the vehicle over is pushed back into the first vehicle to reset the vehicle control system 200.

As discussed previously, the vehicle may be different vehicles, such as planes, automobiles, helicopters or boats. If the vehicle is a boat, a hatch may be opened so that it will sink. If the vehicle is a plane or helicopter, the engines may cut off. Either way, once step 434 has been completed, the vehicle powers down, signifying that it has been damaged too much in comparison. Here, instead of returning to step 380, as for the 1^(st) and 2^(nd) Hits, the process ends.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating the functionality of a toy apparatus in accordance with one aspect of the disclosure. The apparatus includes a module 702 for receiving a trigger signal for an event from another toy; a module 704 for determining whether a previous trigger signal has been received; and a module 706 for providing a feedback to the trigger event based on the determination of receipt of the previous trigger signal.

Those of skill in the art would understand that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

Those of skill in the art would further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal. Moreover, in some aspects any suitable computer-program product may comprise a computer-readable medium comprising codes (e.g., executable by at least one computer) relating to one or more of the aspects of the disclosure. In some aspects a computer program product may comprise packaging materials.

The teachings herein may be incorporated into (e.g., implemented within or performed by) a variety of toys (e.g., vehicles). Accordingly, one or more aspects taught herein may be incorporated into a car, a plane, a helicopter, a truck, a fire engine, etc.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented within or performed by an integrated circuit (“IC”), an access terminal, or an access point. The IC may comprise a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, electrical components, optical components, mechanical components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein, and may execute codes or instructions that reside within the IC, outside of the IC, or both. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

The previous description of the disclosed aspects is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present disclosure. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein. 

1. A method of operating a toy, comprising: receiving a trigger signal for an event from another toy; determining whether a previous trigger signal has been received; and providing a feedback to the trigger event based on the determination of receipt of the previous trigger signal. 